Update, Monday, April 18 at 11:45 p.m.: They’ve counted Count Dracula out. Per Deadline, Karyn Kusama’s monster movie for Blumhouse and Miramax is no more. Mina Harker, her modern spin on the classic vampire story, was supposed to start shooting in just three weeks with Jasmine Cephas Jones (Blindspotting, #FreeRayshawn) playing the titular role. In a script written by frequent Kusama collaborators Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi, Mina was set to meet a new version of the Bram Stoker protagonist named Vladimir in contemporary Los Angeles. But Miramax reportedly put a stake in the project due to creative differences with the Yellowjackets Kusama. The undead can die after all, it seems.
Original story published follows.
The Invisible Man has made more than $100 million at the global box office in just two weekends, which might have its co-producer, Blumhouse, feeling a little bullish. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Jennifer’s Body and The Invitation director Karyn Kusama will helm an update of the monster that launched them all for Universal so many decades ago: Dracula. Since the character is in the public domain now, it’s not necessary that the mini-major partner with Universal to make the new film, but they do have a very successful longstanding distribution partnership with Blumhouse’s higher priority releases, e.g. Get Out, Us, Happy Death Day.
THR’s source says that Kusama’s vampire tale would be set in modern times, like Invisible, and that Matt Manfredi and Kusama’s husband Phil Hay are writing the screenplay. (They also collaborated with her on Destroyer and Invitation.) Other monster movies in the works as part of the modified Dark Universe relaunch include Paul Feig’s Dark Army, Matt Stawski’s Monster Mash musical, Dexter Fletcher’s Renfield, Elizabeth Banks’s The Invisible Woman, and a James Wan-produced Frankenstein movie.
